Mayhem in the Mall 2014 - Sat. Oct 11, 2014

[Jeff Miller]

Edmonton Extreme Armwrestling Association presents -
*MAYHEM IN THE MALL - Western Canadian Armwrestling Championships*
location: NewCap Stage, West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Tournament date: Saturday, Oct 11, 2014
tournament directors: Jason Tibok (Facebook), Jeff Miller (armwrestlerjeff @gmail.com). Please call if you have any questions.
*Opening SUPERMATCH will be announced within the next week*
*ALL ARE WELCOME!*
Double Elimination Style Open Armwrestling Tournament
Weigh-Ins: 9:00 AM - 10:00AM
REFEREE RULE MEETING: 11:00 AM - NOON
Youth Tournament Start Time: 12:00 NOON
Adult Tournament Start Time: 1:00 PM
Anticipated Completion Time: 6:00 PM
Registration/Weigh-ins:
- PLEASE PRE-REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT ASAP BY CONTACTING JEFF MILLER VIA EMAIL AT [e-mail].
-Registration cost for adult PRE-REGISTERED ARMWRESTLERS ONLY: $50 per arm
Half of each $50 registration fee will go to prize money for the first place finisher of the class entered. Example: If there are 5 entries
- Registraion cost for last minute entries on tournament day: $60 per arm. PLEASE PRE-REGISTER AS NOTED ABOVE AND KNOW YOUR WEIGH CLASS; IN THE FUTURE REGISTRATION ON THE DAY WILL NOT BE PERMITTED.
- Weigh in's on Friday, October 10, 6pm-9pm under the NewCap stage.
- 5 pound clothing allowance
*Please note changes made from previous announcement*
Men's Open Weigh Classes (L+R):
145lbs, 155lbs, 170lbs, 185lbs, 205lbs, 225lbs, 225lbs +
Men's Masters Classes (40 yrs+, L+R):
205lbs, 205lbs +
Men's Grand Masters Classes (50 yrs+, L+R):
205lbs, 205lbs +
Women's Open Weight Classes (L+R):
135lbs, 135lbs+
Women's Masters Class (40 yrs +, L+R):
Openweight
Women's Grand Masters Class (50 yrs +, L+R):
Openweight
Planned Youth Classes:
15yrs-17yrs, L+R (Boys + Girls)
12yrs-14yrs L+R (Boys + Girls)
*Youth under 12 to be organized as per participation on the day. Youth Classes may be re-organized on the day due to numbers participating and relative sizing/age of youth on the day*
Thanks, looking forward to seeing everyone there!

[Jeff Miller]

Added Men's & Women's Masters divisions

[Jeff Miller]

*Just Confirmed: MATT WIGGINS VS. STEPHANE HEROUX SUPERMATCH - BEST OF 5 LEFT HANDED - competing for #2 spot in NORTH AMERICAN RANKING from inthehook.com. They will be competing at 155lbs (Lightweight).* ...this is a big deal folks, not just the best in Canada, these two are arguably competing for the title of BEST IN NORTH AMERICA!*

[Jeff Miller]

We will be having a new format for the double elimination tournament at Mayhem this year:

Every "match-up" will be played out as a best of three set. One foul equals one loss to keep the time of the tournament similar to conventional format. *FALSE STARTS WILL BE CALLED AS FOULS* The rest will be as the new rules laid out at 2014 Alberta Armwrestling provincials; ie all slips go to straps, ref's grip details, "Don't move...GO!". It will function as a typical DOUBLE ELIMINATION style tournament with B-Side winners having the chance to return to the A-Side. This will guarantee all participants a minimum of 4 matches.

For example: Jason Tibok vs. Jean-Philippe Paré are called to the table: JP and Jason start cleanly, and JP pins Jason - Set is at 1-0. They pull again and JP elbow fouls once - Jason wins - Set is at 1-1. They pull a third match and Jason elbow fouls - JP wins - Set is 2-1 for JP; JP wins the set! This will help prevent one-lucky-shot flash pins, and show more skill to each set I believe. The quantity of matches will likely be slightly greater than conventional double elimination (the old way with 2 fouls) and slightly less than conventional triple elimination. JP moves on to the A-Side to compete in another set of 3, and Jason moves on to the B-Side to compete in another set of 3. As soon as any competitor has lost his/her 2nd set they are eliminated (same as standard double elimination).

[Will Sarty]

This sounds awesome Jeff!!

Can't wait to see the Supermatch results!

I'm still goin Wiggens all day

[Jeff Miller]

Guys and gals, change of plan...no more warnings, we will match AB Armwrestling rules and false starts are now FOULS. Still best of 3 matches per MATCH-UP, double elimination tournament. Armwrestle clean, and you'll do well... cheat and meet your doom.

[Jeff Miller]

Weigh ins/registration for Mayhem Friday Oct 10 6pm-9pm at NewCap stage in West Ed Mall, and also at 9am-10am on Saturday, Oct 11 at the NewCap stage as well. The NewCap stage is where the tournament is too, as it has always been! Good luck competitors, should be a good one.
Everyone must weigh in and sign up at one of those two times, even if you pre-register via email. I hope everyone tries to sign up on Friday, as it will help get things going quicker on Saturday. Thanks, Jeff

[Jeff Miller]

Bumped youth start time to 12:00 NOON, Added referee rule review meeting at 11:00 AM.

[Rick Pinkney]

So an early start is a foul and a foul is a loss, therefore an early start is a loss. Wow.

[Jeff Miller]

An early start is a loss of a MATCH, and not a loss of the best-of-3 MATCH-UP. Each match in a match-up cannot be viewed as a true "loss", you have to look as the entire best of three match-up. This was a difficult mental shift for many armwrestlers, who looked visibly frustrated that they had "lost" a single match on an early start.

In AB provincials in March 2014 we did away with warnings, and just handed out fouls for early starts, letting go of the peg (no match-ups in that one, but we used triple elimination). I am not used to it and I still suck at this, because I have trained myself to anticipate go's all these years. I feel like I will lose if I don't beat my opponent to the go, hence I early start and incur losses - I did this against Lorne Roberts this tournament, but there's only me to blame for that. I would like to practice this more to see if I can get better at pure reaction time starts w/o warnings.

One good thing about this system was that nobody pulled their elbow off the pad to get a re-start, as that would cause a loss.

I think the DRAWBACK to having warnings for early starts is that it encourages trying to anticipate the go; getting a jump on the opponent based on pure luck - not timing nor reaction time(the two skillful ways to start IMO).
The UP-SIDE to warnings is that you may feel more relaxed and not worried about false starts, and therefor be more inclined to hit off the "GO".
I feel like our system at Mayhem had positive and negative outcomes, for me a negative was people being stressed about the strictness of the early start, and elbow foul to lose a match.

A positive was that you had a chance to catch someone in match #2 after being surprised by a flash pin in match #1 of a match-up.